Kosmos 25 (russian: Космос 25 meaning ''Cosmos 25''), also known as DS-P1 No.4 was a prototype radar target

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

for

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear weapon, nuclear, Chemical weapon, chemical, Bioagent, biological, or conventiona ...

tests, which was launched by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1964 as part of the

Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik (russian: Днепропетровский Спутник; ua, Дніпропетровський супутник), also known as DS, was a series of satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1982. DS satel ...

programme. Its primary mission was to demonstrate the necessary technologies for radar tracking of spacecraft, which would allow future satellites to function as targets. It was launched aboard a

Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I (GRAU Index: 11K63, also known as Cosmos-2I and also known by the designation Kosmos-2) is the designation applied to two Soviet carrier rockets, members of the R-12 Kosmos rocket family, which were used to orbit satellites between 196 ...

63S1 rocket, from Mayak-2 at Kapustin Yar. The launch occurred at 13:26 GMT on 27 February 1964. Kosmos 25 was placed into a

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of , an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of , 49.0° of

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

, and an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of 92.3 minutes. It decayed from orbit on 21 November 1964. Kosmos 25 was a prototype DS-P1 satellite, the last of four to be launched. Of these, it was the third to successfully reach orbit after Kosmos 6 and

Kosmos 19 Kosmos 19 (russian: Космос 19 meaning ''Cosmos 19''), also known as DS-P1 No.3 was a prototype radar target satellite for anti-ballistic missile tests, which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1963 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik p ...

. It was succeeded by the first operational DS-P1 satellite,

Kosmos 36 Kosmos 36 (russian: Космос 36 meaning ''Cosmos 36''), also known as DS-P1-Yu #1 was a satellite which was used for use in calibrating the Dnestr space surveillance and as a radar calibration target, for tests of anti-ballistic missiles. It ...

References

Spacecraft launched in 1964 Kosmos 0025 1964 in the Soviet Union Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik program {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

See also

References